Description

The FIL3 from Future Sound Systems is a revised form of the sought-after FIL2 Spectral Devastator – a high-pass and low-pass filter coupling, both with unmistakeable character. Originally designed between 2011 and 2012, the Spectral Devastator was designed by Finlay Shakespeare whilst attempting to find new methods of voltage control over filter circuits, working from first principles. Whilst the FIL2 always imparted its brutality on to input signals, the FIL3 gives more control over the behaviour of both filter sections.

The first new addition is the Colour control, added by attempting to give external control over each filter’s Resonance. Whilst the oscillation of each filter is now controllable by the Colour parameters, further non-linearity can be added as well, broadening the palette of tones available from each filter.

Secondly, each filter features a Blast switch. Whilst this control attempts to add linearisation to the filter core, it also allows for the Resonance to become even more pronounced. As with the Colour parameters, the Blast switches extend the tonal spectrum of the two filters giving further flexibility. Input Drive and output Level controls have also been added to each filter. This gives the user more control over signal level, which can become wildly unpredictable when using the filters. With increasing Drive, the input signal will defeat the filter core as the filters become saturated. The Normalling switches from the FIL2 are still present, allowing for quick and easy patching between the high-pass and low-pass filters, for use in series or in parallel.

The Cutoff CV Depth of each filter is also now present on an attenuverter, allowing for increased modulation potential. The manual Cutoff controls have also been improved, giving the FIL3 better control ranges than its predecessor, whilst retaining all of its brute force.